Ultrashort laser pulses and ultrashort electron bunches generated in relativistic laser-plasma interaction
- Laboratoire d'Optique Appliquee, Ecole Polytechnique, ENSTA, CNRS, UMR 7639, Palaiseau (France)
An experimental study of the interaction of ultrashort laser pulses with underdense plasmas in the relativistic regime is presented. A parameter regime of particular interest was found: the so-called bubble regime. In this regime, the laser pulse is focused to relativistic intensities and its pulse duration is comparable to or shorter than the plasma period. A wealth of physical phenomena occurs for such physical parameters. These phenomena have multiple signatures which have been investigated experimentally: (i) the generation of a high quality electron beam (high energy, very collimated, quasimonoenergetic energy distribution); (ii) the laser pulse temporal shortening in nonlinear plasma waves. In addition, experimental results suggest that the electron beam produced in this way has temporal structures shorter than 50 fs.
- OSTI ID:
- 20783179
- Journal Information:
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 13, Issue 5; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.2180727; (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1070-664X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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